Wilayah Khorasan

Wilayah Khorasan is a branch of the Salafist-Islamist Islamic State militant group active mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, founded on 26 January 2015. In September 2014, the Islamic State sent representatives to Pakistan to meet with local militants, including some Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan factions, and the Islamic State also began to distribute leaflets, flags, and propaganda materials in parts of Pakistan, calling on all Muslims to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In October, several TTP commanders defected to IS, and, on 10 January 2015, they pledged allegiance to Baghdadi and nominated Hafiz Saeed Khan as the head of the Islamic State's new "Wilayah Khorasan" province. The group grew in numbers as members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the TTP, Kashmiri separatist groups, and the Taliban pledged allegiance to Baghdadi, and it came to have around 10,000 fighters.